Here’s my ”Team Destiny” photo again – Jake Manning is missing though…
___________________________________________
Below is an article in today’s Spartanburg paper I found interesting:
Article published Apr 15, 2007
Our enemies in the Middle East are of our own making
By James R. Herbert, for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Virtually every enemy we are now facing, or are threatening to face, in the Middle East is either a monster of our own creation or one that we have eagerly fed over a period of many decades:
u The sectarian violence in Iraq was borne from our long-term support of Saddam Hussein and the hatred that festered during those many years of oppression.
u The militant Islamists in Iran arose from our overthrow of freely elected Mohammed Mossedegh (in 1953) followed by 25 years of oppressive U.S.-backed rule by the Shah and then support for Saddam in our cynical manipulation of events during the Iran-Iraq War.
u The Taliban, Osama bin Laden and, by extension, al-Qaida were armed and trained either directly by us or our “clients” in the region in our desperate attempt to dislodge the Soviet Union from its occupation of Afghanistan.
u The Palestinian-Israeli conflict resulted from our blind support of the far-right elements in Israel (and their far-right supporters here).
u The oppressive, aggressively U.S.-backed regimes in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have spawned indigenous fanatical groups that have exported their hatred of the West and the United States in particular, which, in turn, has fed the Taliban and al-Qaida (among others).
Our ignorance about how others live, think and believe is matched only by our greed in wanting to rob these people of their resources. Either through official governmental channels or the even shadier world of arms dealership, we have now managed to arm all of the various factions in the region.
The current fiasco in Iraq, though eerily reminiscent of Vietnam, more closely resembles Algeria in very important ways. We actually followed the French into Vietnam and now are repeating the grievous errors they made in Algeria. The lesson of that conflict is that an insurgency cannot be fought as a conventional war for the simple reason that the “battle space” is psychological and not physical.
No amount of troop buildup will serve to resolve the conflict in Iraq. Indeed, the lesson of history tells us it will only make it worse – acting as a lightning rod and training ground for increased insurgency and terrorism. Many people in the U.S. military, and many who have been forced to retire, know this.
Likewise, continuing to refuse to engage productively with the Palestinians, Syrians, Iranians and others who have legitimate claims in the region will only push them into taking chances that will bring the entire region closer to causing a world war.
Bush administration officials are playing a very foolish game of brinksmanship and are losing in every way – militarily, diplomatically, economically and in terms of our national prestige and moral authority. It is high time that Mr. Bush and his cronies stop acting like the rich, spoiled brats they were raised to be and start acting like rational adults committed to creating a world that will be a decent place for all our children and grandchildren in which to live. If their history is any indication, though, this will not happen.
It is remarkable that the nonsense about our going to fight the terrorists in Iraq and how cutting off funding for the Iraq war would aid the terrorists is repeated so frequently. Follow the money and the pathways to power, and it is evident that the biggest beneficiaries of this ill-advised “adventure” are:
u The Bush administration and the organizations in charge of the insurgency (including al-Qaida) who continue to use the presence of each other as an opportunity to play on fear and nationalistic loyalties to raise funds, enlist troops and garner more popular support for their efforts (though this is wearing much thinner over time for what have become vast majorities in both the United States and Iraq).
u The “military-industrial complex” that President Dwight Eisenhower was so eloquently adamant about in his warnings after World War II.
u The arms merchants who are happy to sell their wares to willing buyers – of which there are many in the oil-rich Middle East.
u The Iranians, whose Shia allies in Iraq are now in charge of the official apparatus of the Iraqi government.
The vast majority of the people of Iraq want the United States to leave now because they understand that our being there simply creates more chaos and danger for them and their loved ones. Their country has become the world’s premier training ground for terrorists, whose primary goal now is to target U.S. troops and their ostensible allies (e.g., police, translators, businesspeople), causing whatever collateral damage might occur in the process.
The Iraq war would never have occurred but for the lies, deception and scare tactics used to enrage and dupe the public.
Though heavily silenced by the Bush administration, many of the brightest military minds in our country understand that this probably was a lost cause from the outset and that the utter incompetence of post-invasion planning has resulted in a fiasco that cannot end too soon.
James R. Hebert is a University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health professor.
.JPG)
.JPG)
